"Oh, match-making, is it? Then I'll try." And so, vexed, but laughing, half indignant, yet wholly subordinate to the whim of his beloved better half, the captain hastened over, and found Colonel Braxton sitting with gloomy brow at his littered desk, his annoyance of the morning evidently forgotten in matters more serious. "Oh--er--Cram, come in, come in, man," said he, distractedly. "Here's a matter I want to see you about. It's--well, just take that letter and read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about it." And as Cram's blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern. "What do you think of it? Is there any truth----" and the colonel hesitated. "As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,--the challenge,--I don't believe it." "Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in the same hand. Now, you must see to it that he returns and doesn't quit the post until this matter is arranged." "I'll attend to it, sir," was the answer. And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of officers' quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the objects so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram's "little foot-page" came to beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they rolled out of the resounding sally-port, an orderly ran up, saluted, and slipped a note in Waring's hand. "It is immediate, sir," was his explanation. "Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?" said Waring, as he shifted whip and reins into the left hand and turned coolly up the levee road. Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive. It only said, "Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to-night. Come direct to me, and I will explain. "Your friend, "CRAM." "All right," said Waring, aloud. "My compliments to the captain, and say I'll be with him." But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still. CHAPTER III.